What do sororities really like to do at socials?
 

My house has been back and forth trying to figure out what really makes a good social-aka one where sorority girls ahve a good time.

We have good socials now, but i wanted to get some advice to bump it up to the next notch, and hopfully book our calendar for Friday's too.

So girls, let me know what you think:

What do sororities really look for at great socials?

Thanks

From a fraternity perspective, what we try to provide for a social -

Good fraternity partner, a good theme, decent drink special, good pre-party/late-night to go with it.

A good theme is great and all, but a good drink special is really what makes a social fun.

1. Theme that GIRLS like...some of the fraternities I know pick themes that they think are hilarious/awesome but no girls want to dress up for that particular theme. True story: one of my friends sororities had a mixer with a fraternity and they want the theme to be "Starring Val and his Gals"...Val Kilmer movies...they were all into it and the girls in the sorority balked and demanded that the theme be changed.
2. Let's be honest...good/inventive drinks. Margaritas, Daiquiris, SoCo & Sprite...I am a whiskey girl myself, and some of my friends are really into beer, but I feel that on a whole if you do fun "girlier" drinks for a sorority they will eat it up.
3. Fun guys to hang out with. Obviously you can't really change how good the guys in your fraternity are with girls, but you can figure out ways to work around it. For example, if the guys in a fraternity can't strike a conversation to save their lives, eliminate the awkwardness by doing fun competitions (ie, olympics/tournaments if you catch my drift) that make people interact as a group and eliminate more one-on-one conversations. Or like karaoke where all the focus is on one person.

We never paid for drinks at our socials (TGs). They were paid through our social budget.

Does your national organization permit this? Ours doesn't allow any alcohol to be purchased by the chapter.

No ones does (fraternities included). That's what slush funds are for.

Benzgirl and I are from back in the day when sororities had slush funds too or just paid into a social fund outright. The concept of a "drink special" at a mixer is bizarre to me, as it implies paying for drinks.

But at any rate, yes, it does go over well if you have something available other than beer.

I want to know who the girls are who didn't like the Val Kilmer movie theme. That sounds awesome to me. There are some themes that you can do w/ sororities you are more comfy with/who are more comfy w/ you that you can't do with ones you don't know as well. The trick is knowing your audience. I know w/ all the sororities at Penn State that's hard, but still try to do so.

Our does not either. We are required to have a legit third party vendor if we want to have alchol there.

Well we can't have official Mixers with alcohol, so our "Mixers" last about an hour, and then the real fun begins. ;)

Ladies love themes, for parties, graffiti bash is killer, decade parties e.g. 70's parties are fun, anything where they can get dressed up. For the non alcoholic fun try competitions pumpkin carving cookie decoration, it's about Christmas Caroling time again, ask a sorority to join you and make it a philanthropy. The beauty of themes and competition is it removes the awkward factor of meeting someone new, the freshman guys don't have to force a convo if they're busy tyring to help a partner kill their 40oz. For drinks BeerAde is always gone at the end of our parties. I also prefer tie exchanges or blind date functions because you are sure to meet new people which is the point of going Greek.

On the topic of themes and people digging them, we had success one year when we put members from both orgs in a bunch of totally random groups and then said: okay, now you have one-two hours to put together a theme costume for your group. We had the spice girls, the planeteers, Hef & bunnies, etc. The two social chairs and maybe the two presidents judged who was best and they got some sort of prize.

Good times.

I think one of the most success socials that my house did last year was with the fraternity across the street (up to that point we had animosity for each other, for no reason too). We did an exchange dinner, drawing tokens to see which house you would eat dinner at (too many people to do it at one house) and afterward we went to their live out for a party. It was successful because during dinner we talked with the guys, really got to know them. The party was just a normal dance party but it was a lot of fun, a couple other sororities actually crashed it and the guys were not happy about that.

You may not need a theme party to do a social with a sorority. I personally get tired of having to buy stuff to dress up, a normal party is nice and more comfortable depending on the group of people.

My fraternity did a Wine and Cheese mixer with one of the sororities this year. It went great. My fraternity made dinner and we all ate and got to know each other. Then after the mixer officially ended, the wine came out and it got even more exciting.
So I know you aren't asking for mixer ideas, but you can always take these and turn them into socials. Just eliminate the fraternity part.

Oh, and our sororities had a sex toy mixer this year. I heard it was a lot of fun but I have no idea what happened..

well, that sounds classy

I've always had more fun at the mixers that have classy themes. I hate going to mixers where you have to dress in a certain way that doesn't represent our chapter well. We just did a "Guys in Ties, Girls in Pearls" mixer and it was great.

We've had a fraternity invite us to mix and when we got there they hardly talked to us. They were either too intoxicated or didn't care. We still had fun with our sisters, but were pretty disappointed with the guys. Make sure your brothers are socializing as best they can. It makes a huge difference with who we choose to mix with in the future.

Yeah, I'd have to say I am uninterested in attending any party that requires me to dress inappropriately (ho, streetwalker, skank, naughty school girl, sexy secretary, etc.) or that has a theme that brings down another group of people (hillbillies, Italian wedding (??), white trash, "ghetto" etc.).

I went to an awesome party called "Dead Authors" put on by the English honor society Sigma Tau Delta, which had just as much booze and ridiculous behavior without being insulting. I'm easily amused by men dressed as Emily Dickinson or Jane Austen though. Hemmingway Twister is still a fond memory.

hahahahaha this sounds awesome.

Thinking back on it, I'm surprised the Crows never tried to talk us into a Monty Python mixer.

Do you know how hard it is to play Twister when you're dressed as Sylvia Plath (had a box covered with foil on my head)?

Haha! Ten dollars says a couple of people are looking at that post going "box with tin foil? What?"

That's creative, though.

If I go to a similar party, I think Virgina Woolf would be good. Need an overcoat and some stones, and maybe wet hair.

Some of the best socials I've been to had great themes that everyone feel comfortable participating in. I think my favorites were highlighter socials and shot auctions, but I've been to luaus, pimps & ho's (not a fan), CEOs and secretary ho's, toga parties, semi-formal attire, costume (on days that were not halloween), 80's theme, pjs & porn (one of the more interesting one's i've been to), and 70's theme (held at a rollar rink), anything but clothes, and Heaven and Hell socials....


and to address the paying for drinks factor:

i think all greek organizations are not technically allowed to pay for alcohol for their socials/mixers, BUT if you have a larger budget for socials/mixers, and you attribute for "entertainment" or "Misc." or "refreshments" then no one is the wiser...theoretically that is lol.

riiiiiiiight ;), also echoing the "classy" sentiment thrown out up there...